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US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' used Cooking Oil Supply

Hilton Murr edited this page 2025-01-11 18:06:14 -06:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the past year, but decreased to recognize the business targeted because the investigations are continuous.

The of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some products identified as used cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The concern came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has actually performed audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms need to be as rigorous in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually developed energetic standards to confirm, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the very same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)